Fantastic Four (Movieverse) – Retribution

Summary: Doom seeks revenge on the Fantastic Four for defeating him twice. Are the foursome ready for such a personal attack? Johnnycentric :D

Disclaimer: Nope, no ownership here

Authors Notes: Okay, so I wrote a oneshot, but due to the cliff-hanger that was left I have decided to continue it in a longer multi-chapter fanfic...The story now starts from the beginning, hope you like :D

My Britishness still applies and so any American terminology, places, names etc are taken from my extensive TV viewing and Google. Plus, my knowledge of the Fan4 in purely from the movies and a few episodes of the 2006 cartoon, so sorry for any mistakes

Thanks very much to lil_kanny, ktty, and Amber for reviewing my oneshot! Hope you like this as well!

Enjoy!!!

Chapter One: Times Square

Times Square, Manhattan

"That is just disgusting!" cried out Johnny as another wave of muddy gloop came dangerously close to hitting him. The one villain he actually dreaded fighting was the Moleman; and today the underground hermit had come out full force. His plan? Well, to make the surface world just as dark and stinky as his lair. "Do we have a plan?!"

His sister Sue shrugged nonchalantly as she held back the mud easily with her force field. Her husband Reed had stretched himself to a tall height to avoid it, although his boots were no longer black...more like dog mess brown. Johnny couldn't help but grin when he saw that Ben couldn't evade the mud like the rest of the team and his orange rocky skin was now stained with smelly brown mud. Ben managed to turn to the rest of the team, despite being waist deep in sludge. "I'd like a plan please. One that involves a shower!"

"I'm working on it okay!" Reed called back, cringing as the mud rose higher around his legs. Using his height to his advantage he surveyed the scene. Where was the mud coming from?

They were in the middle of Times Square; a thankfully deserted Times Square. Huge skyscrapers towered on either side with their bright neon signs advertising cars and celebrities. The cars that had packed the streets before the Moleman's attack piled up as the swirling cascade of mud ran the length of the street. A huge bus was poking out of the mud to the teams left and was moving with the current. Current?

Reed trampled his way upstream, skilfully avoiding the piled up traffic. Johnny followed, his body alight with his flames. "What's up brainiac?"

"Johnny, follow the current, see if you can find a source..."

Lennox Hill Hospital, New York

Two Weeks Ago

"Where's the blood sample being kept? We need to identify the source of this thing," asked Dr. Maiden of a young intern. The intern shrugged unhelpfully. "You're gonna make a great doctor one day." Maiden replied sarcastically.

The hospital was alive with the average activity, although to an outsider it might appear hectic. The ER was jam packed with everything from cut fingers to major head wounds. The nurses on duty scarpered around in their scrubs, assisting patients and signing out the healthy. Doctors and Surgeons in their flowing white lab coats ran around heroically while helpless interns flailed among the chaos.

"Kayla!" cried a nurse from behind the station when she saw Dr. Maiden. "You're looking for that sample right? Taken from the DOA in the morgue? They labelled it potentially lethal; it's in the fridge downstairs."

"Thanks," nodded Kayla as she turned and headed for the elevators. She was a young woman in her late twenties with long raven black hair she tamed into a ponytail. Her eyes were a cold a piercing blue. She wore her lab coat with pride as she swaggered down the halls and waited patiently for the elevator. She had a nice figure, thin, but not a stick, and creamy pale skin.

The fridge the nurse had spoken of was the 'Dangerous Substances Store'. Any chemicals, disease samples or unidentified particles were all stored in there at -5 degrees Celsius. Kayla swiped her ID card and typed in the pass code to gain access to the fridge. The door whooshed open with cold air blasting outwards. She stepped inside and wrapped her lab coat tighter around her shoulders. "It's bloody freezing in here," she muttered to herself. She then rolled her eyes. "Of course it is...it's a freezer."

Inside the room it was entirely white with shelves of jars and vials lining the walls. There were a few display cases where a couple of the substances had to be kept warm rather than cool, and an AC monitor was near the door. The read out confirmed the room's temperature was being maintained at -10.

The room itself was tiny. Dr. Maiden made her way down a corridor of shelves, trying to track down the sample she needed to take for testing. She was only a surgeon, and therefore not involved in the aftercare of a patient, even a dead one, but this case had piqued her curiosity. She knew she should just let the researchers look at it, but she couldn't let it lie.

Suddenly a loud click sounded from the direction of the door. It sounded suspiciously like a lock slamming into place. Dr. Maiden rushed out from her place and up to the windowless door. She tugged on the handle, but it wouldn't move. It wasn't designed to be unlocked from the inside.

She was trapped.

Times Square, Manhattan

Johnny flew ahead of the team that had been held back by the muddy wave. Below him all he could see was brown sludge and his nose was being offended by a less than pleasant smell. Following the river upstream he eventually came across the source. A mud volcano? In Manhattan? Stranger things have happened. Johnny shrugged.

He engaged his communicator and after a short click was greeted with a blast of static. "Reed, it's a mud volcano, about half a mile up from your position. What should I do?"

"Hold tight, we're coming to you," came Reed's reply.

"That means don't do anything," interrupted Ben's gruff voice. Johnny rolled his eyes even though Ben couldn't see him. He turned off the communicator and hovered directly above the cone of the volcano. It was continuing to spurt the thick sludge, but Johnny would do as he was told.

For all of 30 seconds.

Johnny began to circle the top of the cone, looking for a way to block it. That was the best thing to do right? Just stick something in the top and stop it spewing mud everywhere. Decided on his course of action, Johnny found his blocking device. One of the huge TV screens that were attached to the side of the buildings. He found one that was near enough to the volcano, and calculated its trajectory when it fell. See? He thought things through before he did them.

He lined himself up with the supports of the TV and let loose a stream of fire, melting the metal supports. The TV instantly toppled, following the trajectory Johnny had predicted. With a satisfying squelch it landed directly in the opening of the mud volcano.

Instantly the river of mud stopped flowing, slowing to a standstill. Johnny observed his handiwork with a cocky grin plastered on his face.

"Johnny?" asked Reed as his stretched tall form appeared nearby, a horrified expression on his face. "What did you do?"

An ominous rumble reverberated from the blocked volcano.

Lennox Hill Hospital, New York

Two Weeks Ago

Panic began to take hold of Kayla Maiden as she pounded uselessly on the door of the fridge. She immediately regretted following her curiosity. If she hadn't have had to investigate the blood sample she wouldn't have been in the freezer, and she wouldn't be trapped.

"Damnnit!" she screamed as she kicked at the non-moving door. "Ow!" she gripped her now aching toe and hopped on the other foot. It would have been quite comical if it weren't for her current situation. She pulled out her pager, but it had taken the opportunity to stop working. Cell phones weren't allowed, so she couldn't call for help. And wasn't it getting colder?

"No," Kayla whispered. She watched the numbers on the AC readout gradually drop. -12, -13, -14, -15... She grabbed hold of the box, desperately jabbing at the buttons to stop the falling temperature, but nothing was working. "No, no, no, no!"

Kayla stumbled back from the door, fear filling her as she felt her body become hypothermic. She started shivering in an attempt to warm herself up. She gasped for air as she struggled to breath. She took a few shaky steps backwards, the ominous red numbers still counting down -16, -17, -18, -19, -20...

Then she fell into the Adynamic phase. God, she was diagnosing herself. Her rapid breathing slowed significantly as she felt her chest become depressed from the pressure of the cold. Her muscles refused to work with her as she tripped over her own feet. As she fell backwards she knocked several jars off the shelf nearest her. They smashed around her, splashing her with poisonous liquids.

She lay there, blinking wearily and unable to move as she watched the numbers. -21, -22, -23...

Times Square, Manhattan

The rumble of the volcano became louder as the Fantastic Four gathered around it. Sue had created a force field just above the now stationary river of mud for her, Ben and Reed to stand on. Johnny hovered nearby them, shrugging innocently. "It fell."

Reed, Sue and Ben all threw Johnny the same 'yeah right' expression. Johnny actually winced, something that he internally scolded himself for. Reed observed the volcano, noting its physical appearance and deep rumblings. "It's man made," he murmured to himself. "The blockage is causing the pressure to rise. It's gonna blow!"

As if on cue, the rumblings stopped. Then all hell broke loose.

A fountain of the muddy goo exploded upwards like an oil rig that just struck gold. Sue instinctively created another force field, encasing her Reed and Ben in a bubble as the mud flowed over them. Johnny wasn't so lucky. He didn't have enough altitude to avoid the mud and was covered with the foul-smelling liquid. It smothered out his flames and he fell the twenty feet back down to earth...and into the river.

He choked on the mud as it filled his mouth and he struggled to get himself out of the mess. He ended up sitting on top of a nearby car, looking like the creature from the black lagoon. Ben gave him a satisfied smile from his nice safe place, looking smug despite his also muddy appearance. "What you looking at Rocky?"

"Oh...nothing," Ben couldn't keep the laughter out of his voice. Johnny had been so careful to avoid the slime, and now, well...he hadn't been successful.

The fountain finally stopped and the flow slowed to a steady trickle rolling over the edges of the volcano's cone. Sue let her second bubble-like force field drop as the threat calmed slightly. Reed turned to his wife. "It's man-made, by a machine. That's most definitely not natural. The Moleman has made a mud volcano...it's fascinating really..."

"Get to the point Reed," interrupted Ben, not unkindly.

"Right, yes. Sue, can you go down there in a force field? See if you can't find the machine and shut it off?" instructed Reed. The Invisible Woman nodded in reply. The two men that stood on her force field floor were dropped into the river, making them cry out in shock as Sue surrounded herself in a bubble and disappeared down into the volcano's depths.

Johnny laughed from his perch on the car as Ben and Reed had to swim through the sludge and climb onto their own abandoned transport.

Lennox Hill Hospital, New York

One Week Ago

"Shit! We're gonna lose him!" cried Dr Maiden as she desperately tried to stop the bleeding. The patient on her table was a male in his early twenties who had had a motorbike accident. He had received extreme blunt force trauma to the chest and abdomen, and that was ignoring the broken leg and severe head wound.

He had fallen under her knife, and she had instantly opened him up to source and stop the bleeding. But he was haemorrhaging too badly. Once she managed to stop one bleed she'd find two or more hidden in his chest cavity. He had a punctured lung and she was pretty sure he had a ruptured spleen. Everything was against her and the man on her table.

"BP is dropping," informed one of the nurses that filled the room. A blinding light shone above Kayla to try and reveal her patients injuries. But they were too extensive and too many. She couldn't find them all.

Dr. Maiden was a fully trained surgeon who specialised in trauma care. She knew from experience that the man that lay before her was already a lost cause. She had known the second the EMT's had brought him in. Usually she would make the attempt, but distance herself from the patient so that she was less affected, but something had changed since that day in the fridge.

She had no idea how much. The pressure and the emotions that filled the room around her were taking their toll. She felt a coldness rise up inside her. She ignored it though, she had to focus on the patient...she had to save him. But it was so cold. She shivered.

Instantly new bleeds appeared. Her usually steady hands had shaken; her scalpel had nicked a major artery. She had to focus. Stop the bleed. Stop all the bleeding. But it was so damn cold! She looked up at her assisting surgeon, another young man, not long finished his internship. "You gotta finish for me. I'm causing more damage than I'm fixing."

The young surgeon nodded confidently and took the scalpel off her, but his eyes betrayed him. He had no idea how to save the young man. But he would try, and that was the best anyone could hope for now. Dr. Maiden backed away from the table in her bloodied scrubs and left the chaos of the OR behind her.

As she left she heard the bone-chilling beep of the heart monitor flat lining. The OR erupted with shouts and calls as they began the mandatory yet essentially useless resuscitation. Dr. Maiden, a successful trauma surgeon who had never before cracked under pressure, walked away shivering from a cold only she could feel.

Underneath Times Square, Manhattan

Susan Storm delved deep into the volcano's core, surprised by how cool it was. The rock around her was jagged and rough, but it seemed almost surgical in style with its straight edges. Reed was right, the volcano was made by a machine; nature never produced such prominent outlines.

The deeper she got the wider the chasm became. She pushed against the thick sludge that was on its way up and out into the surface world. When finally she came to a bottom she found a cave like lair full of small slug like creatures. She released the force field that surrounded her as soon as she was close enough to touch the floor and out of the path of the mud.

"Nice decor, very underworld," she muttered to herself. Quickly she located the computer console that was controlling the mud volcano making machine. It was relatively simple to operate. In fact, it was child's play. There was a bright green 'on' button, and a red 'off' button. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she just pressed the big red button.

"Okay, world domination for numpties, green = go, red = stop." Sue joked as she easily stopped the machine by pressing the red button. Instantly the mud volcano stopped and Sue breathed a sigh of relief. She felt sorry for the people who would have to clean up the sludge though.

"What do you think you are doing?" came an angered shout from behind. Sue spun around surprised, instinctively turning invisible. She scolded herself for not realising that the bad guy would be down there. Before her invisible form stood a very short round man with large eyes accustomed to the dark. Moleman.

Lennox Hill Hospital, New York

Six Days Ago

The Chief Residents office was large and ornate, with heavy oak furniture and velvet lined chairs. The Chief Resident himself on the other hand was actually rather small. He sat slumped in his chair, his wire-frame reading spectacles perched on the end of his nose. He was balding and wrinkled. He smirked up at Dr. Maiden as she entered with quiet steps. "Take a seat Miss Maiden."

Kayla stiffened at the title, miss? Oh God no. She took the seat opposite him, feeling very tiny in his presence despite his size. Her future literally rested in his hands. "Dr. Leonard, I can explain..."

"There is no need to explain, the report done by the junior surgeon is by far detailed enough. You froze in the middle of vital surgery and now a patient is dead." Kayla decided not to point out the irony of the word 'froze'. He had no idea what had happened to her, and explaining would probably get her kicked out even faster. "The family is filing a malpractice suit. I will not have your incompetence threaten the integrity of this hospital."

He allowed his sentence to sink in. Kayla was dumbfounded. She had expected to be suspended, maybe have a temporary licence revoke, but he was going to fire her. "But...but sir, I have been an asset to this hospital, surely you can reconsider..."

"I am well aware of your past achievements Miss Maiden, but ever since that break in protocol a week ago you have managed to undermine your own reputation. You are very lucky to be alive and yet you continue to perform poorly," Dr. Leonard peered over his glasses at Kayla, and in a quieter voice continued. "Your efforts have been much appreciated Kayla, I'm not denying that. You are an excellent surgeon, and I will recommend your skills. But you have suffered an extreme trauma and its affecting your work. I cannot risk it. I'm sorry. Have your desk cleared by the end of the day."

Kayla honestly felt her heart break at that very moment. She was dedicated to her work; she had no life, family, friends, anything outside of the hospital. Her apartment was empty and lonely. Dr. Leonard had just taken her life away, and he didn't seem to realise. She stood and left the office, the coldness rising inside of her as she walked away.

Underneath Times Square, Manhattan

The small man threw an armful of sludge at the place he had last seen the Invisible Woman. It hit her directly, making her visible. Susan Storm did not appear happy to be covered in slime. She lashed out quickly with a force field that caught the Moleman unawares and flung him deep into his cavern.

In response to the attack, the mass of slug-like creatures turned on Sue, surrounding her with toothless mouths wide open and gaping. It made her feel slightly queasy as they approached her on all sides. She held them back with a force field, but they ended up climbing up it, their gooey underbellies sticking to it. The increase in weight was putting a strain on her, and Sue engaged her communicator. "Help now please! Mass amounts of slugs squishing me! Yuck!"

Seconds later the cavern was lit by the Human Torch. The fire blinded the creatures, making some of them back away. Others were put off by the heat. But most just continued anyway. "Sue! Are you okay?"

"Just get them off me!" she cried. She buckled under the weight of holding up her shield, but kept it going, blood beginning to dribble from her nose. Johnny increased the heat of his flames and circled around Sue's force field, leaving a trail of flames that made the slugs issue almost human screams. Instantly they fell from the shield and scampered away. Relieved, Sue let down her shield and smiled up at her brother. "Thanks...LOOK OUT!"

"Woah!" Johnny swerved the ton of muck just in time. The slugs had returned, this time armed with old-fashioned catapults loaded with mud. As they fired ball after ball of gross substances at them, Johnny flew evasively. Diving in close to try and take out the weapons and then soaring backwards to avoid another hunk of sludge. "This is not fun!"

Sue meanwhile was repelling the onslaught with shield after shield, but it had been a long day and each force field she made was weaker than the last. Suddenly a much larger piece of mud struck her force field with enough force to send her flying backwards. She collided hard with the wall of the cave and fell in a crumpled heap on the ground.

"Sue! Sue!" shouted Johnny. She didn't react to his voice, and he instantly feared the worse. With a renewed burst of anger, flame and speed, Johnny filled the cavern with a fire just shy of supernova. He was careful to avoid his sister, but cared very little for the screaming slugs.

Finally the exhaustion of keeping up the heat made him fall to the ground. His body ached from the exertion, but it had worked. The cavern was now empty apart from him and his sister. Sue had sat up and was blinking at him wearily. He dragged himself to his feet, letting his relief show on his face. "Sue, you're okay...for a second there..."

"No, no, I'm fine," Sue reassured him as he came over and crouched next to her. Blood trickled from a small cut just above her right eyebrow, which Johnny instantly checked. Satisfied she didn't have a major concussion, he helped his sister to her feet. "Oww!"

"What is it?" Johnny asked quickly. Sue held her arm against her stomach and rubbed a tender spot.

"I think I sprained my wrist," Sue looked up at Johnny with a smile on her face. "Nothing serious. Let's go home eh?"

Hospital for Special Surgery, New York

Five Days Earlier

"I'm afraid we can't employ you here Dr. Maiden," the elderly woman replied matter of factly. "There is simply no position available to suit your many talents."

"I'll take anything, nurse, receptionist, anything," retorted Kayla, a note of desperation in her voice. This was the third hospital she had tried that day. It was the same ornate large office, same elderly person behind the desk, and the same answer every time.

"I'm sorry, but we cannot employ you," the chief resident smiled smugly. "Why don't you try St. Lukes?"

I have, thought Kayla to herself. Instead she just nodded dejectedly. "Thank you for your time."

King John's Apartment Complex, New York

Three Days Earlier

It was useless. Everywhere she went she got the same answer. Kayla threw herself on to her bed and stared up at the ceiling. What the hell was she gonna do?

Helplessness and misery dissolved into anger. Who was she angry at? She didn't care. But she liked the relief she got from the burning hatred that boiled inside of her. Wait...it wasn't hot, it was...cold. Her entire body shivered as she felt her insides freeze and crystallise. It was something she knew should hurt, but for some reason it felt right. Scary, but right.

She closed her eyes and lost herself in the cold. She could feel every heat source around her. The cup of coffee on her bedside table burned her. The electricity in the copper wires in the walls. The body heat of the neighbours. She could locate them; she knew, without seeing, where all these things were. It was amazing.

She let out a cleansing breath that she didn't know she had been holding and opened her eyes. The room felt blissfully cool. It wasn't until she sat up and looked around that she realised why. The bed she lay on was encased in layer of ice. Surprised, Kayla slipped of the edge and stared around her. Somehow she knew that she had done it. She had frozen the bed. She...she...could make ice? Impossible. No, beyond impossible. The medical implications of such a thing, well, it was just...impossible.

And yet it had happened.

A smile played across her lips as she realised the truth. She was in awe of her own power, and yet it also scared her slightly. She knew that was a good thing. Being scared of her power meant that she wouldn't abuse it. She held onto that fear as she admired the bed again. She could kill someone with this power. She knew that. She saved lives; that was her job. She would not let it control her.

But what would she do? Well, first she had to control it. She had to learn the true extent of what she could do. And then she would need someone who understood. As if fate was guiding her she switched on her television. The Fantastic Four.

Okay, that was it, the opening tadaa!

I hope you like, and I hope you like enough to review :D

I will be updating soon, I'm on study leave so I have way too much free time on my hands!